Mid-life career changeSocial marketing participants create dozens -- perhaps hundreds -- of messages every day. They rarely think of their postings and messages as copywriting. After all, these arenas are supposed to be, well, social. So we tend to relax and forget everything we learned about writing copy for our websites and sales letters.

As a result, a lot of time invested in social marketing gets wasted.

In running any successful business, even 100 years ago, the key to success was marketing. Without a good advertising and marketing strategy, you can't have a successful business, point blank. Nothing you could do, aside from creating the next "hot item", can make a business work without a good website marketing plan. Even if you do have the next hot item, you can't convince people of that without an effective marketing strategy.

If you are a small business owner then you know how difficult it is to get into the top Google rankings for your targeted keywords.

It may be that you want to hire an SEO expert or internet marketing agency to take care of SEO for you. But if you do not, here are 11 things to keep in mind as your optimize your website.

1. Write for readers.

Web 2.0 refers to the newer, more interconnected, interactive methods of advertising and using the internet. There are so many different new tools, including social networks like MySpace and Facebook, and even new marketing tools such as blogs and informal message board forums. All Web 2.0 really stands for is "new and improved internet." Oddly, none of these applications, tools, or capabilities are really new.

Online advertising is going to be essential to the success of your business. Without proper advertising, after all, you won't be able to let people know about your business so that they can find you. There are many different ways to advertise online, but you need to make sure that you consider all of them and choose a plan of action that will guarantee successful results and increased traffic to your website.

Internet marketers typically work to create a large opt-in list. Once your list has agreed to accept your emails, you can send ezines, newsletters and special offers targeted directly to them.

"Linda," a new Internet marketer, grew her list easily. But she found her list was not helpful in generating leads. "Every time I make an offer," she said, "I lose about 10% of my list.

Unless you are stuck in your old ways you need to consider moving some, parts or all of your business on to the internet. You would not let a revenue growing opportunity walk out your physical store so don't let a potential revenue growing opportunity walk out the virtual store you could own if you get your business on the internet. If you are a bricks and mortar business, you need to take a step back and determine just what doing business on the internet can do for you.

Everyone has a passion or a hobby; they know more than the average person about their area of interest does. It really is of little consequence what your passion or hobby might be (up to a point). If you are interested in fishing, boating, skiing, sports, home improvement, flowers, gardens, decorating, cars, juggling balls, saving money, travel destinations or whatever.

Find out what Internet users and buyers want in web sites and what they don't want.

What Internet visitors like:

* They want easy and logical navigation. Viewers want to find what they're looking for without clicking on numerous links or having to go through numerous pages. Use words for your navigation buttons and links they will recognize such as Home, Order, and Contact.

The internet provides millions of potential customers who are looking daily for products or services to buy. Online home business success will come to those who excel at internet marketing techniques in order to promote something on the internet.

The traditional methods of promotion such as TV, direct mail, radio and the print media are far more expensive than advertising online.